Servitor Stalking - RPLOG

Participants

• Cassidy
• Natska

Date

31/8/477

Log

Cassidy raises her brow as she considers the thought before snickering. "Maybe! My, that'd be quite a thing, wouldn't it?" She continues watching the little servitor go about it's tasks, her tail twitching behind her. "What do you figure these things are -doing- anyway? Always messing with some kind of panels... I can understand maintaining the place, but maintaining the -insides- of the walls? There's no tech TO maintain, is there? Unless... Ever wonder if maybe they're sending messages to the other servitors, and those little wall panels are like the... Post offices?"

Natska giggles again, and starts to reply when the machine picks the panel up and, with a scrap and a clatter, presses it back into place; there is a buzz and some sparks, and then it turns. Natska pulls back, out of its way, and watches.

Cassidy bites her lip at the thought, looking back over towards where the servitor was looking before turning her attention to the device itself. "Maybe we should follow it? And see what it does? Because come to think if it, they're always doing something, but they've only ever been background stuff... I wonder what their -actual- routine is..."

Natska thinks for a moment, then gives Cassidy a nod, stepping past the fennec to retake the lead. As she does she brushes a hand against Cass' arm, then begins shadowing the scuttling repair bot.

Cassidy reaches up behind her to tug her hood back over her head as she scoots after Natska with a little nod. "I don't think it can hear us," she murmurs as she joins in the tailing of the little 'creature.' "I mean, I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem to have noticed us yet. Hopefully it won't!"

"Mmm. I think it would have to be able to take commands somehow, right?" Natska asks. "Still, if it has heard us, it doesn't seem to care." She pauses to draw an arrow on the floor, then hurries and catches up, moving quickly and quietly. "I have never tailed one before! I wonder where it is going, Cass. I am excited."

Cassidy rubs at the chin of her mask before nodding. "Good point! Hmm. Yes, as long as we keep our distance and don't touch anything, I figure we'll be fine. A lot of them don't seem to mind beings... Probably because we are creations of the creators, as well." She smiles at Natska, pausing briefly for her to finish with the chalk before resuming her stalking of the servitor through the metal halls, brushing her gloved fingers along the wall as she goes. "Such neat things..."

Natska chases after the spider-bot, following it deeper into the tunnels. She only pauses to make the occaisonal mark, to help her and Cassidy find their way out, and then ducks into a side room as the servitor abruptly stops. She leans out, ears perked, watching. The servitor turns and moves to the tunnel wall, then climbs up the wall and along the ceiling, pausing at a flickering glow-panel. "Neat," she agrees. "And... yes. They don't seem to be built for fighting, just to work on things."

Cassidy blinks a few times in surprise as the servitor starts to climb up the wall and ceiling. "... Huh. I've never seen them do that before..." She makes her way over to the spot where the servitor climbed up and pokes at the wall, as if testing to see if she can do it, too. When she can't, she frowns a little. "How strange!" She looks back up to the creation and rubs at the back of the head. "How do you figure it did that? I agree, though. They definitely seem a... Fix-y thing."

Natska considers that for a moment, tail swishing. "Hmmm... earth magic, perhaps?" she asks. "It is Creator metal. The walls are Creator metal. Maybe it can make itself stick, like a real spider?" she asks. She watches the servitor as it 'sits' motionless next to the glow panel. "What do you think it is doing?"

Cassidy peers intently at the servitor as she nods along at Natska's words. "Hmm... Maybe it's... Uhh. Resting?" She points at the blowing panel for a moment. "Sort of like plants that get energy from the light, maybe it gets energy from the glowing panel?" She hums thoughtfully before shaking her head. "I'm almost tempted to touch it, but not while the servitor is there. And maybe you're right, about the sticking, that is. Very curious..." After a moment, she tugs what looks to be a creator-steel knife from her pack and presses it against the wall to no avail. "Huh. Strange indeed."

Natska giggles, grinning as she watches Cassidy experimenting. "I know... almost nothing about earth magic. Almost. But it isn't using air to lift itself." She thinks a moment, looking back up at the servitor. "Hmmmm. Maybe! It is not like they get sunlight down here. And I don't see a mouth on it for eating. Then again, I have not seen a golem eat, either... those just run off of the math of their controller, right?"

Cassidy bobs her head. "Yes, I don't know much earth magic, either... But I know that, while I can float and fly with air magic I cannot actually -walk- on the ceiling. That'd require such an intense amount of continued upwards wind... No, it's definitely not that." She tucks the knife away again and shrugs. "And I believe so, yes! But if the servitors don't have controllers... Hmm. We'll have to ask the creators, maybe? I know they can't give us stuff, but maybe they can at least tell us if we let them know that we're already onto it? They don't have to go and explain it or anything... But it'd be nice to know."

"Maybe!" Natska replies. "Right, they wouldn't have to go and explain how anything works... but I bet they could tell us if we're right, right?" Her tail swishes, and then she gives a little start as the servitor moves again. It heads down the opposite wall, then starts walking down the hallway again. "Are we still following it, love?" Natska asks, glancing up and down the hallway.

Cassidy nods once. "Right! I mean... I want to know the secret of the servitors! And... Sure. Unless you wanted to go see something else...? I mean, maybe it'll even lead us to one of those unexplored rooms! I doubt many others have ever thought about following a servitor! And maybe if it goes in a tiny hole, I can follow it!"

Natska quickly takes off down the hallway after the servitor, nodding her head. "I would worry if you chased it somewhere I couldn't follow, love," she tells Cassidy, walking briskly to keep pace with the servitor drone. "And I didn't know if you wanted to keep experimenting there." She glances up and looks at the lights along the tunnel - some working, some not, and thinks about how long some of them must have been running for.

Cassidy giggles softly and nods. "Right! It would mostly be to see if I could find a way to get you in, as well! Don't worry, I won't go leaving you or nothing. I'd be worried about being separated from you as well." She gives a warm, if unseen, smile to Natska as she matches pace to keep up with the skittering drone. "But yes, I am very curious to see where this thing goes. Think of how much we could potentially learn!"

The servitor continues down the hallway, turns, and goes a short ways and into another room. Natska marks the turn, then comes up to the room's doorway and peers into it, looking for the servitor. "Do you see it still, love?" she asks, quietly slipping in. "Perhaps we -will- see it hunt and feed or something!"

Cassidy skitters in behind Natska and glances around, narrowing her eyes. "Over there, I think," she says gesturing towards the right wall of the room. "Maybe we will... You never know. We may be the first to understand how these work as far as beings go! Imagine that... We could write a paper on them or something," she says with a teasing giggle.

Natska giggles, moving into the room and watching as the servitor taps at the wall in several places. "Mmm. Maybe! It will be your triumphant announcement on the scene of the study of Creator artifacts!" Natska agrees, giving Cass a nod. "I so rarely see the Machine Priests out in places like this... it is almost always our job, well, my job to bring them things. Not notes or observations from in the field." She tilts her head to the side, watching. "I think Fenris is the only exception I can think off of hand, but Fenris does everything."

Cassidy flaps a hand and nods. "Fenris is an... Unusual case. But yes, maybe I'll write a book about our finds here, sometime. It'd be nothing too amazing, I'm sure. But it might be fun! If nothing else, I'm having fun -being- here with you." She continues to watch the servitor all the while, giggling again. "Look at us. Dressed up and ready for a scuffle, yet we're sneaking around and following a little spidergolem."

Natska nods again, snickering. "I know. You never know what you'll run into, though, and it is good to be r-" she pauses, and her eyes widen a little as the spider golem removes a plate of metal from the wall - that had, until a few moments prior, looked like it was solid. "Oh my. Like those panels the Creator scholars had?" she asks, nodding; the servitor, meanwhile, extends a small claw into the wall. "Hmmm... yes. A book. You could give lectures, too. Use air and fire to make moving pictures of the spiders, or... oh! You could paint them, too. Great big wall-sized paintings, and you could have hirelings that would take them down and put the next one up when you wanted to move to the next!" she exlaims, cheerfully.

Cassidy raises a brow and uses a bit of her kitsune magic to create an illusion of a servitor. "I have a much easier way of doing that, you know! I don't know about -lectures- though... I am no professor! So I'm not sure." She lets her attention drift back to the curious work of the other sevitor. "It'll take us somewhere interesting sooner or later! I am sure of it."

Natska laughs, clapping her hands for a moment. "Ah right! You haven't done a lot with the illusions, and so I wasn't sure how easy it would be to do that with them." She leans against an abandoned table - seemingly of a single piece with the floor, or no doubt someone would have ran off with it - and nods. "So just a book then? You aren't looking to conquer the academic community in total?" she asks. Her tail flicks, and then the glowpanels in the room and the tunnel outside wink out as the servitor makes an adjustment in the wall.

Cassidy giggles again and nods. "Yes, I don't often use them much! Not for serious stuff anyway... Mostly just for fun sleight of hand and stuff... And some interesting mind-games to play with people. But uh, yeah! I can do that." She glances over at the jaguar and shakes her head before turning her attention back to the servitor. "Nah. I'll never be that good at creator technology. In magic, maybe!"

Natska holds still, and very quiet, until the lights flicker back on. Her ears perk and she watches the servitor for a moment, then looks at Cassidy and smiles. "Some day, yes. You are still working on your own spell, right?" she asks. "I wouldn't know where to begin writing a whole new one, myself..." Natska shakes her head, and then her ear perks and she tilts her head to the side; over at the wall, the servitor is dragging its piece of metal back into place, sealing it away once more.

Cassidy leans against the table, herself, folding her arms as she nods. "I am! I've got... A number of spell ideas, actually! It's... Largely based on looking at the equations that already exist, isolating what does what, and trying to figure out a way to get the components to all work together in a way that allow you to do something new!"

Natska slips over next to Cassidy and puts an arm around her love's waist, giving her a quick hug. "I am pretty good at my chosen magics. And even better when I put my witch gem in the first spot. But I am no spell-crafter, and even though I get what you're saying I still don't think I could really break anything down further than the basic spells we train people with. You are brilliant, love." She smiles and noses Cass' ear, then moves up to the doorway as the servitor begins crossing the room. "... did it just make a noise?" she asks. "Like a... a..." she stalls a moment, not having the word in her vocabulary. "A beep?"

Cassidy tilts her head, ear flicking. "Thank you, Natska. But you're plenty smart, too, in your own way! I just happen to have book-ish smarts! Nothing fancy about it, really. We've all got our strengths and weaknesses, after all! Even as gifted." She starts to follow after Natska once she starts moving and gives a little nod. "Yeah, I think so! A beep... Or a chirp!"

"Oooh," Natska nearly coos. "That is adorable." The jaguar peeks her head out of the room to check the hallway, then pulls back, letting the servitor skitter past while staying well out of the way. "And thank you, love!" Natska beams at Cass. "I do love my puzzles. And my..." she trails off, thinking for the proper words. "Thinking about the ideas of things. Maybe spell-writing is just too straightforward for me." She slips out into the hallway, then, following the servitor at a short distance, glancing up and down as they go. "I do not think I have ever been in this part of the tunnels before."

Cassidy glances around the new hallway and hums. "Chances are, I haven't either, then! Maybe if we keep this up, we'll discover something new afterall!" She follows along after both the feline and the servitor, humming thoughtfully. "But yes, you're very smart! You're a... Logic person, it sounds like. You use logic in math, but it's a different kind of thing! I like logic, too, but puzzles aren't -quite- my strongsuit, usually. Sometimes I like them, though!"

The servitor leads them past another tunnel junction, a faint breeze discernable from downone of the cross tunnels; Natska takes a moment to mark their path and peer down in that direction, where it looks like a section of the tunnel floor had given out. Still, the servitor wasn't stopping to look, so she hurries to catch up. "All kinds of things can be fun, when you are in the right mood for them, after all." She grins back at Cass, and her ear flicks; after a moment she runs a finger along her muzzle. "I know I have mentioned it before in passing, but maybe I *should* get a mask. Then we really can be a matched pair."

Cassidy snickers softly and nods. "Yes, I suppose that's quite right..." She eyes Natska over for a moment and hums before smiling. "This is turning out to be quite a journy, isn't it?" And glances at the little hole in the floor. "I'm sure we'll be quite tired when we get home. I think that warrant sleeping in nice and late for our lazy day tomorrow, don't you think?" She asks with a hinting edge. "And maybe! I'm not sure if a mask is really your style... Maybe a nice domino mask?"

Natska grins at Cassidy, adding a slight sway to her step for the next few paces. "A domino mask? Hmm... yes, I like that idea. Quite a bit, actually. White, to match yours? Black, to match the suit?" she asks, spreading her arms for a moment. The Servitor turns a corner and she marks it, then follows. "Mmph, definitely sleeping in tomorrow, yes. You can count on it, love. And spending allll day at home."

Cassidy eyes Natska over for a moment before smiling. "I think black would look best on you, love! It'd go well with your fur and your outfits!" She smiles for a moment longer before relaxing into a neutral expression as her attention flits back towards the servitor, bustling after it. "Yes, sleep nice and late for me! That way I can give you a proper surprise!"

Natska raises her eyebrows at that. "Oooh?" she asks. "Well, then, I suppose I had better make sure I do!" The servitor bot has stopped in the hallway for a moment, then turns and enters a room; Natska follows in time to see it climb a wall and slip into a vent. She frowns, her ear twitching.

Cassidy snickers softly and winks at Natska before mimicing her frown as the servitor slips away. "Aww... You think it'll come back? Or maybe we could... Squeeze in? I'd hate for our journey to end here! Not after we followed it so far!" After a moment she flicks her ears. "It's a good thing you left marks, because otherwise I'd be lost."

Natska frowns as she considers the smaller tunnel, eyeing it. "I *might* be able to squeeze through there. With some difficulty. Maybe if I added a thin layet of ice to help slide through... but I don't want to get stuck." She looks around, then moves up to the wall. "Want to take a peek? See if it has an opening you can see on the other side?" she asks. She motions for Cass to join her, then kneels and laces her fingers, ready to give Cass a boost.

Cassidy glances up at the vent, then at Natska and bites her lip. "Sure, I can do that! I am still reluctant to depart your company, but... Stay safe, hm?" She approaches the jaguar and attempts to climb up into her hands to use her as a boost to climb her way into the vent. "Here's hoping -I- don't get stuck!"

"Pff," Natska says, giving her head a quick shake. "Don't go -in-, love. Just take a look. I thought it'd be easier to give you a lift than to ask you to hover. Or try to hold myself up by my fingers." She grins at the fennec. "So don't go in the vent. Just look and see what you can see." She stands then, carefully bracing Cassidy.

Cassidy raises a brow and ooohs softly. "I get what you mean! Yeah, good idea." As she's boosted up, she hooks her upper body into the vent and hangs herself to take some of the weight off of Natska. She's still hanging out from the waist down, making sure she won't get stuck and can be pulled out in a hurry if needed. "Hmm... It's sort of dark! Should I be looking for anything in particular...?" She lets her eyes scan the immediate area before her.

Natska unintentionally finds herself too distracted to respond right away as she stares up at Cassidy; then she giggles, and calls up to her love. "Is there any visible light up there? If we head back out into the tunnels, having a direction to search in would be useful."

Cassidy is oblivious to such looks and distractions! She's busy casting looks about of her own. "Hmm... In the vent itself, no... But I suppose that makes sense, I mean, why would there be lights in here? But... I can see a dim light ahead! From the next room I'm guessing."

Natska nods her head. "Straight ahead? Ahead and to the left? Right?" she asks, tail swishing. She looks around the room again, ears perked, as she makes sure nothing sneaks up on them.

Cassidy cranes her head to the side and wiggles forward a little more. "Left... No, right! Yes, to the right. It was reflecting. Yes, ahead and to the right around a corner. I can't make out what's in the room without crawling through the vents. There should be a door around somewhere, though..."

"Great, love. Come on back down!" Natska calls, helping to lower the fennec. She puts her hands against the wall for a moment as she tries to add the as-yet unseen room to the map in her head. "Ahead, around a corner, to the right... alright. SHall we go try to find it?"

Cassidy wiggles herself out of the vent, letting herself down to the ground with Natska's help. "Thank you! And of course! We can't go turning back now!" She says with a happy grin as she brushes off the back of her outfit. "So... Hmm... Which way are you thinking? It's hard to see what the layout of the room is, so the entrance could be anywhere..."

Natska gives Cassidy a quick, tight hug, then heads for the room's exit. "Mmmm. Really, at this point, we'll just have to circle the tunnels and hope we find something in that direction. I think if we backtrack to the last hallway, and go a different way, we'll be heading in the right direction. We'll just have to hope it turns quickly."

Cassidy wraps her arms around Natska in return, nuzzling briefly into her side. "You think so? Well. Worth a shot at least! I would've tried to find another door in this room that would open for us, but a bit of backtracking and path alteration would work, as well! I mean, we'll find it eventually, right? Remind me not to make my castle this confusing to navigate!"

Natska blinks, and then peers around the room, her ears going flat for a moment. "Oh! Oh, right. Yes, if the other room looked like it was that close, we can see if there is a door that will open for us." She grins, and her ears perk back up. "Nice job, love."

Cassidy furrows her brow for a moment before thinking. "Nooo... Not quite that close... But I think I've got it figured out. It was -close- but not super close, maybe if we..." She turns and starts bustling towards the door they came from. Instead of turning the corner in the hallway that they came from, she turns the other way as if they'd just gone straight. "This way, I think... And then we can turn..." She turns abruptly, making the next lefthand turn, going to the same direction as the room before, but further down the hall. "The door should be on the left hand side of this hall, I think!"

Natska smiles and follows after Cassidy, taking long, quick strides to keep up with the hurrying fennec. She nods, and begins moving down the hallway, peeking into rooms as they go. "Mmmm... a lot of these rooms have those sorts of vents. What do you think they built them for? Just for those servitor golems? Maybe courier ones that carried things around?"

Cassidy scratches at her cheek around the edge of her mask. "I'm not sure, really! Maybe for... Air? Maybe for the servitors, yes. You know, to keep them out of the way on the floor?" She pauses at one of the doors and hums, stepping inside to peer around. "I think this is it..."

Natska moves in behind Cassidy, looking around; she nods at the room's access vent, then blinks and points up near the top of a wall. There is the servitor - or a servitor - next to a box-shaped protrusion near the top of the wall. It has a hand-sized piece of metal panneling held in one claw, and is prodding at something inside the box; there are occaisonal sparks, and someone looking from the right angle might see the glimmer of math-glyphs on the bit of metal the servitor is prodding.

Cassidy folds her hands behind her back, looking at the vent. "Yeah, that's it! I'm not sure what THAT is, though," she says in regards to the servitor's little box. "Huh... I kind of want to investigate, but I'd still not like to agitate it, you know? Hmm... Maybe when the thing puts it down..."

"Huh," Natska replies. She circles around a little, staring up at it, then shakes her head. "No idea. It is too bad I know next to nothing about these things." The jaguar purses her lips for a moment, then sighs and shakes her head, tail lashing back and forth once. "Oh well. Something to be corrected."

Cassidy folds her arms over her chest and snorts. "Where's Fenris when you need him, right?" A soft chuckle escapes her muzzle as she watches the little golem do its work. "What curious places these are... Though I wonder... Has anyone been down this far before? I don't see many signs of others having been here anytime soon..."

Natska tilts her head and then looks around the room itself; after a bit she shakes her head. "No, I think you are right. Someone may have been through, but not any time soon. Maybe the Lost, but with little immediately useable they wouldn't have come back." Her ear flicks and she starts poking around; meanwhile, the servitor makes another chirping beep. If anything, this one seems almost... disappointed, and it puts the small panel it was holding back in place. A moment later, and it scuttles down the wall and towards the room's door.

Cassidy perks her ears and glances at Natska. "The Lost?" She asks, brow raised. "I've heard that term before, but... I can't place it! That's those uhh... Hm. Those few seldom creators that were supposedly always here? Or was that something else? I can't recall! Either way, someday we should come back here and map this place out. Imagine that! A full map of the Undertunnels, all thanks to us! And... Shall we keep following it? Or perhaps mark our place and come back another day?"

Natska watches the servitor, moving up towards the door. "I am fine either way, love," she replies. "Mapping the whole tunnels would be a major task, but something we could do. And the Lost are a Clan of beings that live down here," she explains. "That have, supposedly, been down here for hundreds of years. And they are not friendly."

Cassidy bites her lip. "It's a long walk back to the manor, and I'm sure we'll want to bathe and snuggle after all this is said and done, but at the same time..." She watches the servitor before glancing at Natska. "Have a spare piece of chalk love? I have a crazy idea..."

Natska raises her eyebrows, and then extends the stick of chalk to Cassidy. "I wasn't planning on losing this one, but here." She smiles, and brushes her hands together. "Mmph. Yes, it will be a long trip back home, and who knows what me might still run in to on the way out."

Cassidy smiles and nods. "I will try not to lose it, then!" She eyes the servitor again and slinks forward, 'sneaking' up on it. Before it manages to slip through the door, she reaches out to tag it on the hull before skittering backwards. It tags her with a bit of a warning jolt, but she had expected as much. "Ow! Totally worth it, though. Unless it somehow gets cleaned... We're going to be able to find this servitor again, hopefully!" She pushes herself back up and offers the chalk to Natska again. "But yes. Hopefully nothing will be waiting on the way back!"

Natska tenses as she sees Cassidy approaching the servitor, and even as her love is retreating, she has her knife out and is ready to defend the pair. The servitor seems to have lost interest, though, or is far too busy as it continues on its way. She slides her blade away, and lets herself snicker. "Interesting! I'll definitely be interested in seeing if we can find that one again. Did you want to head home then, Cass?"

Cassidy gives her hand a few shakes before nodding. "Yeah! Sorry if I gave you a startle there. But from my experience with servitors, if you touch one they just give you a warning zap. Unless you're really messing with them, they're not too bad! So I figured I'd try to mark it. I want to watch this one!" She pats her hands off on the red suit and tugs her hood back up. "But yes, let's head home. This was a very interesting day, certainly! And my legs could use a rest. We've got a big day tomorrow! A big day of nothing at all!"

Natska snickers at that, too. She tucks the chalk back in its seperate pocket, checks that her bag is in place, then heads out into the hallway-tunnel. "Yes. A big day of doing nothing, love. I am looking forward to it, too!" She begins backtracking their journey, moving quietly and easily, keeping an eye out for surprises.

Cassidy giggles softly and nods as she follows along Natska. "Yes, it's going to be lovely, I'm sure! We'll have to come up with some fun lazy-things to do! Tea, plenty of snuggling in bed, reading in bed, hmm... We'll see how it all goes. No need for plans, right? We'll just... Take it easy and do whatever comes to us." The coast seems clear enough, but she's thankful for the chalk marks Natska had the presence of mind to leave behind, else she'd be hopelessly lost!

Natska nods her head, glancing over to grin at Cassidy. "Yes. Just take it easy, and relax, and enjoy ourselves." She continues on, then pauses at one intersection, frowning; she spends a few moments listening, then peeks around the corner.

Cassidy smiles at that, tail swaying happily. "I can't wait. This is already shaping up to be a very superb weekend, and knowing how we get... Tomorrow will be absolutely amazing. Mmh. Though we do need to make -one- plan. What do you like for breakfast, love?" She giggles softly, following after the jaguar til she comes to a stop behind her. "Hear something?" She leans around the feline, taking a peek for herself as she drops her voice.

Natska nods her head, ears perked; this time it is voices, off down the hallway, easier to hear in Natska and Cassidy's momentary silence. However they appear to be down a side tunnel, and looking doesn't reveal anyone; after a moment, Natska quickly slips across the hallway, ready to continue on back towards the camp.

Cassidy bites her lip and opts to remain fully silent upon hearing the voice. She watches for just a moment as Natska crosses, making sure nothing would come up behind her before she swiftly follows after. She lets her hand drift towards the sword at her side, just incase, though she doesn't draw yet. Once she feels they're far enough away, she hazards, "What do you suppose that was? More explorers? Some of those 'Lost' ones?" She keeps her voice low all the same.

Natska lets herself relax as they get further away without running into anything, and then rolls her shoulders in a slight shrug. "I don't know. It could have been either, really, but I didn't feel like finding out." She smiles at that. "I want to get home, eat, take a bath, and then cuddle my way to sleep and either one would have delayed that!"

A soft giggle escapes from the fennec as they come upon the camp station, the smaller woman ducking in to let them know that they came out alright before she's right back to Natska's side. "Likewise. A nice meal and a bath would be superb. And a cuddle up to you, of course! Mmm. This was a lovely trip we got to take. I look forward to coming back now!"